The invention relates to a device for assembling article groups from layers of rod-shaped articles used in the tobacco-processing industry, which are stacked one above the other and side-by-side. The device comprises group-forming bins that move forward intermittently, as well as funnels that correspond to the number of article layers and are divided into chutes. Assigned to these funnels are transfer push rods which can be moved along the article axis and correspond to the height of the respective layer, as well as phantom articles at the chute outlet, which correspond to elongated slots in the transfer push rods.
For reasons of pricing, package production and handling, devices of the aforementioned type are designed to create one or several gaps or defined empty spaces on the cigarette pack inside with identical format or identical dimensions, meaning to create packs with a purposely incomplete content, which can thus contain a varied number of cigarettes.
With respect to such an arrangement, U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,825, for example, discloses preventing or blocking the flow of articles to the intended empty spaces with the aid of phantom articles during the layer or block formation of the pack content, which is pushed into the intermittently moved transport bins.